Fate and biography of Stepan Razin

There is no documentary evidence of when Stepan Razin was born. However, this date can be derived from secondary sources. For example, the Dutchman Jan Jansen Streis, who traveled across Russia, saw several times with the famous rebel. In his notes he recorded that in 1670, Razin was 40 years old, which indicates that he was born around 1630.

Biography details

Only the fact that the famous ataman was born on the Don is known exactly. Biography of Stepan Razin began in the current Volgograd region, where in the XVII century there were numerous Cossack villages and villages. His life was overgrown with numerous fictions and legends, which was traditional for that time. Biography of Stepan Razin became the object of veneration in the Cossacks. His reputation was enjoyed by Emelyan Pugachev, who often mentioned his predecessor during his uprising.

In 1652 Stepan Razin's biography was enlarged with an important event for the latter. He becomes an ataman. Ten years later Stenka participated in a campaign against the Crimean Khan. In addition to the Cossacks, the army included Kalmyks and Zaporozhians. Then Russia defended itself against the Crimean Tatars by means of a large stratum of free soldiers who had lodged in the south of the country.

Razin had an older brother, Ivan. He was ataman of the Don Army. His Cossacks differed freestyle and violent morals, because of which they constantly had conflicts with the tsarist messengers. Moscow voevoda Yuri Dolgorukov during one such clash ordered Ivan to be executed for disobedience. This set up Stepan against the tsarist government.

The situation in the Cossacks

The XVII century in general received the nickname "buntashnogo" because of frequent peasant uprisings. The villagers began to fall into serfdom from the landlords, after the Sobornaya Ulozhenie was adopted in 1649 . Peasants fled from slavery to the Don, from which they did not give out fugitives. By the 70th years in the south of the country a huge number of newly converted Cossacks have accumulated. This stratum was the most intransigent to the tsarist administration, which many accused of unfair treatment of the rural population.

The peasants who became Cossacks were called "golutnevnye". They earned their living by plundering ships on the Volga. Old-timers looked at the situation through their fingers ...

Trekking to Persia

In 1667 Stepan Razin became the leader of such a detachment. A brief biography of the ataman in the history textbook includes references to a campaign against Persia. Indeed, this was the first serious military experience of the brave ataman. In the lower reaches of the Volga, his Cossacks plundered merchants and even ships that belonged to Patriarch Joasaph. The laborers, laborers and other people who traded in the river fleet en masse joined the detachment.

The looting of the merchants did not disturb Moscow, which was very far away. But when the Cossacks defeated the streltsy and even captured the Yaitsky town, the usual boundaries of the permissible were violated.

In the new year of 1668, after wintering on Yaik, the army of Razin went to the Caspian Sea. Here it first encountered the forces of the Persian shah. Razin was joined by Circassians and other residents of the North Caucasus. With such forces in July, the Russians fought the Persians at Pig Island. This was the largest domestic victory at sea in the XVII century. The battle unfolded next to Baku. The Persians were defeated, and the Cossacks got booty. But since the situation was shaky, the latter retreated to Astrakhan, where they were received by the royal governors.

The popular uprising

In the following year Stepan Razin's biography was marked by an open uprising against the tsar. He sent out letters to the south of the country, in which he called everyone who wanted to gain the will to join him. In addition, then there was a tradition of impostors, which was used by Stepan Razin. A brief biography of the ataman continued as follows: he dismissed the rumor that he had an heir to the throne, Aleksey Alekseyevich, who in fact had recently died. At the same time, the tsar clashed with Patriarch Tikhon, who was sent into exile. Using this, Razin also said that the high priest also supports him. The peasants did not need proofs, they willingly went under his banner.

People's support helped Razin capture Astrakhan, Saratov, Tsaritsyn and Samara. Moving upstream, the Cossacks were next to Simbirsk. His siege began in 1670. Order gave himself Razin Stepan Timofeevich. Biography ataman says that the life of a brave Cossack hung in the balance. He went so far that defeat would not leave him the opportunity to survive.

Defeat and execution

Meanwhile, an army of 60,000 soldiers was already moving from Moscow. Razintsy were defeated and thrown back from Simbirsk. Stepan fled, but he failed to enlist the support of the Cossacks, who did not want to be in disgrace. As a result, Razin was captured by his own colleagues, who surrendered him to the tsar in April 1671. On June 6, the leader of the popular uprising was quartered.

It happened in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square in order to edify everyone around. Nevertheless, everyone still remembers who Razin Stepan Timofeevich is. A brief biography of the ataman became the basis for numerous folklore songs, which are still popular today.